Kerala : A true gem to visit

Peerumedu —

And finally, we got married and it was time for our Kerala Honeymoon Packages! After 8 long years of a beautiful and thrilling courtship, we managed to get our parents to agree to our marriage and with their blessings we got married last month. Thrilling, because, we went through years of pressure from home, months of not seeing each other, and weeks of not even able to call up and then days of waiting for some news to catch up! It was a roller-coaster ride all through those years, but we stood strong and our parents too realized it and gave in. We both are born and brought up in Kerala. But then why Kerala Honeymoon Packages? Well, I have not seen too many places in Kerala, in fact, I have only been to Trissur since that’s my maternal native, Kochi since we lived in the city for a while and we both work here, Trivandrum a couple of time and then Calicut once.

Otherwise, I have not seen much of Kerala. So we had decided earlier itself that our travel explorations will start in Kerala. We did not want to go to the usual honeymoon destinations and hence booked a trip to Peerumed where we would stay at a friend’s homestay. We had a week’s holidays and wanted to spend some time together after the eventful days just passed by before the wedding. That’s one break we had promised each other away from everything and everyone else in the world we knew!

We went by bike from Kochi on what was to be our best Kerala Honeymoon Packages to Peerumedu. It was a December morning and the day was bright and pleasant. The November rains had receded and the bike ride was pretty good except for the gutted roads at some places. We had already looked up the Google maps and found that we could go via Thodupuzha — Vagamon route to Peerumed. We decided to take up that way and Thodupuzha’s nature was beautiful. In fact, we even thought of spending a day there to enjoy the landscapes and plantations we have seen in some movies. But then, our friend would be waiting for us that evening at Peerumedu hence we decided to enjoy it at a later date. After all, it was hardly an hour’s drive from Kochi and we could enjoy a weekend over there later. We had our breakfast from Thodupuzha and moved on to Vagamon. The place was awesome. Since it was a working day and off season time, the place was solitary. We had a wonderful time there and for a few hours, we forgot that we were married. After all, that was just a ritual that licensed our life together! Our souls were already together and one. We enjoyed the boating there and as we were about to continue on our trip to Peerumedu, a bus full of foreign tourists arrived there on their Kerala Honeymoon tour Packages. We got one of them to take our picture with the beautiful backdrop of the mountains and the lake.

We had our lunch from one of the ‘Nadan’ or native restaurants and it was simple, homely and very tasty. Apparently, the restaurant was run by a couple who had a great organic vegetable farm nearby and everything served were completely organic food. That was amazing to see amidst a bunch of people running behind the popular Chinese and Fried Chicken fast food joints. If we thought this was the best place, the best Kerala Honeymoon tour Packages was yet to begin! The route to Peerumedu was awesome! We kept clicking pictures till the rain gods played spoilsport! It started drizzling just before we reached our friend’s homestay and by the time we reached there we both were drenched and shivering!!! Thank God, our packed clothes were saved as our friend Sumith had taken our luggage by his car when he reached home the previous night. Sumith stayed nearby only and had arranged our food and the room. His homestay was beautiful. It was half-a-kilometer away from the main road amidst some tall trees. It was done in the traditional Kerala architecture with an open courtyard at the center of the house. We asked him how popular this place was and he showed us the booking register which showed the place booked all through the year on people from all over India and abroad on Kerala trip. His parents are very passionate about cooking and hence, they have appointed a couple of assistants who cook typical Kerala food for the guests upon strict supervision by his parents. The tea and the piping hot homemade Samosas were just what we wanted in that cold climate. We slept nicely after dinner as we were tired from the long day’s travel.

The next day morning, we had asked Sumith to help us around the place and he came with his bike for the tour. He was our guide as he was used to taking the guests on a family trip to Kerala who stayed at his home stay on local tours. Since we had already stopped by Kuttikkanam and enjoyed the waterfalls on our way, we decided to skip it now and went to Grampi or Parunthumpara (eagle rock). It was a breathtaking view to see from on top of Grampi Rock. We spent the rest of the day exploring the Peeru hills and Trissanku Hills. I bet you won’t dare say Munnar is the most beautiful place in Kerala after visiting this gorgeous place. In fact, this is a better place to book on a relaxing trip to Kerala to stay away from the crowded Munnar. The next day we explored Pattumala on our own since Sumith refused to tag along with us ‘love birds’! It was fun, finding the way and then the breathtaking plantations where Sumith had arranged some help to show us around. We stayed back there for a day more to enjoy the beautiful landscapes. We also visited the tribal settlements of Peerumedu which was arranged by Sumith and a couple of our friends too joined us as we had plans to help them out with their issues connecting them to the right organizations that dealt with the same.

We spent the entire week roaming around the place, mostly on our own and sometimes with Sumith. It was a lot of fun and unlike any other honeymoon Kerala trip packages, you may have heard about. Sumith’s parents were very loving and the perfect example of how ideal soul mates should be. We promised them to come back soon on another trip sometime later that year and left Peerumedu quite happy.